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Monday, September 30, 2013

Jenni’s home improvement plans have turned into a disaster.
The only bright spot in her day is watching her handyman neighbor Rick as he
helps out around the neighborhood. Jenni has need of his capable hands in more
ways than one, but she refuses to become just another notch on his toolbox.

Rick is entranced by his standoffish neighbor. He has no
time for the neighborhood women who throw themselves at him, but he intends to
get into Jenni’s house, bed and heart if it’s the last thing he does.

Bracing
against the wind, Jenni took a few steps forward, sat down on the stairs and
watched as her dog barked at the tree. “Keep it up. You’ll probably have better
luck than I have today.” She hung her head. Now she needed to decide whether to
keep trying to make her project work or cut her losses and put the doors she’d
gotten off back on. At the moment, neither option sounded particularly
appealing. The only thing she absolutely had to do was clean the floor. The
rest could wait until she’d had time to drink a few glasses of pinot grigio and
enjoy some trashy reality television. Nothing like a few hours focused on
someone else’s life to make her forget about the troubles in her own.

“Problems?”

Jenni didn’t
need to look up to recognize the deep voice of her neighbor, but popped her
head up to confirm her suspicions. It’d be rude not to at least look at the
person talking to her. At least that was what she told herself. It certainly
couldn’t be because she liked gazing at his tanned skin and sun-bleached hair.

Rick Maas
leaned over the fence between their properties. Her cheeks felt hot as she
tried to think of a witty reply. “Nothing that can’t be fixed.” Maybe not by me, but by someone. She’d
kept an eye on him from the day he’d moved in three months ago. Scratch that.
She’d had both eyes glued to his gorgeous body whenever she got the chance. He
was a perfect specimen of the male form. Wavy hair, a strong chin and a smile
that could turn her knees to jelly. A few times he’d caught her staring at him
while he worked on his motorcycle in the driveway. She’d tried to pretend she
was studying the garden or checking out a bird in a tree, but she doubted he’d
been fooled by her ruse. She couldn’t help it though. The minute he took off
his shirt, her brain turned to mush and her libido took over.

“Anything
I can help you with?” That was a loaded question. Jenni could think of a
hundred things she’d like his help with, but not a single one was home
improvement related. Though a few of them risked damaging her bed frame. She
supposed he could put that back together if they broke it. After they were
done, of course.

She bit
her tongue. His offer was completely innocent and she knew it. Rick helped many
of the neighbors with little tasks around their homes. For the most part, his
assistance went to older individuals struggling to keep up with seasonal
maintenance, but many of the single women—and a few of the married ones—took
him up on his offers as well. A little too often for Jenni’s taste. How many
things could possibly go wrong in one house? She almost laughed at the thought.
Maybe she should take a better look around her kitchen before she judged too
harshly. Still, she swore a few of the ladies broke things for the sole purpose
of having Rick over. They probably made him pitchers of lemonade and homemade
chocolate chip cookies too. How clichéd.
She hated them for it. Partly because she couldn’t even make chocolate chip
cookies, let alone serve them hot out of the oven for the hunk-next-door.

About Emily Cale

Emily Cale spent
the majority of her childhood as a visitor to the worlds of her favorite
authors. With encouragement from her English teachers, she put pen to paper and
began imagining her own stories. Preferring the fascinating lives of her
characters, she majored in creative writing. When not lost in a manuscript or a
good book, she enjoys crocheting, rock climbing, and playing board games. She
currently lives in Portland, Oregon.